Any administrative body anywhere in the world is only as good as the people running it. If you have weak administrators you get a weak body – for instance the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office was the weakest office in India during his tenure, if you have strong administrators you get a strong body – for instance the National Advisory Committee headed by Sonia Gandhi during the UPA regime was sort of a de-facto parliament, if you have corrupt administrators you will end up with a corrupt body – for instance, Bihar under the Chief Ministership of Lalu Prasad Yadav, if you have intelligent administrators you get an intelligent body – Gujrat under Narendra Modi is a prime example of how intelligent administrators can transform a state, and God forbid if your administrators are stupid… you can fill in the blanks.

As far as I can see, the GTA has a definite mixture of two kinds of administrators from the list mentioned above… I will let you decide which two.

Joseph de Maistre the French philosopher once said, “In a democracy, people get the government they deserve, and deserve to get it good and hard.” I believe that in Darjeeling, we are deserving of the “good and hard” part of the politicians we have selected/elected to run our affairs.

Since the formation of GTA, honestly we have nothing to show for real change or development, and the earlier we accept this fact, the easier it will be for us to rectify the situation. Yes! a few schools are being constructed, sanctions for the building of one or two bridges have also been announced, but is that the change we wanted? Is that the kind of development for which GJM rushed in to accept and dilute our demand for Gorkhaland?

NARROW VIEWS

No place on earth that is today considered to be developed has become so without visionary leaders, but sadly for Darjeeling all we have ever got was politicians. Even though the terms LEADER and POLITICIAN are often used synonymously, there is a huge difference between the two. Back in 2006, I had written on this issue “However, a good politician may not always be a good leader. These two words though used synonymously (politician and leader); do not mean the same; and it’s high time that we the people of Darjeeling realize this fact…. If we understand this distinction between a politician and a leader, then I believe we can bring about a change. Because a leader is one who leads, not one who manipulates, a leader is concerned about the welfare of his people, not his own; and most important of all a leader emerges, we don’t need to elect or select him/her.” [Details here: http://bit.ly/15zyFeI]

Darjeeling, in my opinion is yet to get a true LEADER… it from Damber Singh Gurung, Ratan Lal Brahmin to the current crop of politicians, we never got a LEADER – politicians though, we have in plenty – it sounds better in Nepali – हाम्रो त हग्ने-पादने politician छ…

The lack of vision on the part of former politicians in powers – in what Darjeeling region could have been – has turned our beautiful hill region into a colossal mess of epic proportions… the lack of vision on the part of current lot of politicians on what Darjeeling will or should look like 5 years, 10 years, 20 years from now is gradually making our hill region unlivable. Lack of drinking water, lack of green space around towns, lack of medical facilities, lack of proper health and sanitation facilities, lack of proper infrastructure, has left Darjeeling in shambles and it is crumbling.

But our politicians seem oblivious of this basic fact.

Other than the construction a school cum college in Jaldhaka, a few model schools, a few electricity projects and a bridge or two, all the focus it seems is now being given to tourism related projects.

A quick scan of projects proposed tourism projects by GTA throws in these gems:

“GTA to build a 20 crore 35 bed room guest house with an auditorium, a swimming pool, conference hall and badminton court in Kurseong”

“GTA to build a Rs 5.17 crore 22 rooms Tourist Bunglow along with a restaurant and a bar in Pattabung”

“GTA to build 8 Tourist huts, a swimming Pool with Change Rooms, a restaurant in Beltar”

But hands down their best tourism project has to be “3 water theme parks in Jamuney, Relli and Beltar” – wow a “Water Park” where we don’t even get drinking water for almost 4 months in a year? Believe it or not they wanted to build “Water Parks” in Darjeeling region.

I cannot even begin to tell you why that was such a dumb idea, but what shocks me is the total nonchalance and apathy on the part of GTA officials to even suggest a water park, before providing adequate and safe drinking water to the locals.

The ground reality is that despite all the flashy ‘proposed’ projects, our tourism infrastructure is crumbling, it is in such a sad state that 10 years ago tourists used to come to Darjeeling and visit Gangtok as a one day/one night destination. Today people visit Sikkim and on their way back drop in to Darjeeling for a day. No one wants to pay money to see dilapidated, decrepit, dingy, damaged, decaying rows of oddly shaped houses randomly built all over the hills.

CONSPICUOUS BY ABSENCE

But despite all this, I am not complaining, as it is apparent that tourism is the only department under GTA that is functioning properly. At least they are striving for something.

What about other departments?

Who is in charge of Agriculture and Horticulture? Currently it is orange season in Darjeeling, in Siliguri’s regulated market this year, the average prices that BIG size oranges fetched was only Rs 1.60 per orange, and for small sizes gets Rs 0.60 per orange. These very same oranges once they get sorted come back to Darjeeling and we buy them for Rs 10 per piece or Rs 10 ko 3-ta. You can do the math, how much money is made by the middle-men.

Shouldn’t GTA have been undertaking steps to provide minimum support prices for these orange growers?

Currently HIMUL has been shut down for over 4 years the hill milk producers are on the verge of committing suicide due to the debt they have incurred and failure on the part of HIMUL to pay their dues, shouldn’t GTA have been proactive in getting HIMUL restarted?

Our schools and colleges are in pathetic conditions, not only the school buildings but even the teachers – the headmaster and headmistresses included are working on ad-hoc basis. 72 schools under GTA don’t are functioning under a Teacher-in-Charge as appointment to the post of Head Master and Head Mistress has not been under taken in years. Appointment of teachers to teach secondary and higher secondary courses have not been done for almost a decade. Shouldn’t the GTA have been working towards re-building our schools and colleges?

The tea garden workers are suffering for over a century now, their state and condition of living is as pathetic as it was under the British. Shouldn’t the GTA have been struggling for providing land rights to the tea garden workers?

Our infrastructures are crumbling – Our roads are in a complete state of severe disrepair – they are literally disintegrating. Our bridges wobble when we drive on them. We don’t have clean public toilets, in fact people have built houses over public toilets. Our solid-waste management system is nonexistent. Our street lights don’t work in the urban area, and there are many places in rural Darjeeling region like Todey-Tangta under the Kalimpong sub-division where no road have been built or electricity supplied even after 67 years of independence. Our drinking water system is almost non-functional. We don’t have proper parking places for our vehicles. Our green spaces are gradually being encroached upon, someday soon we may have to pay to see a tree in Darjeeling. Darjeeling is the most populated and polluted mountain town in India.

What good are your tourism projects, if the tourists cannot reach those places? and even if they manage to reach, what good are the projects if people do not want to stay for over a day or two? While the word is pushing for sustainable village and home-based tourism, whatever prompted you guys to propose 3 “water parks?”

A look at the epic failure of the ‘Garg World’ a theme park on Gandhi road should tell you guys all you need to know about such projects.

People don’t come to Darjeeling to see built up facilities, they can enjoy those better in their own cities, they come to enjoy the natural beauty of our beautiful hills.

BUDGET BLUES

Many people have noticed the slew of projects currently being undertaken, or proposed to be undertaken by the GTA, and a few have written to asking about the timing of the announcement of these many projects all of a sudden.

The fact is that the current rush to lay foundation stones for this project and that, on the part of GTA, is directly related to the upcoming budget session of the parliament. When the GTA accord was signed, the Central government had provided an annual grant of Rs 200 crore/year for the past three years and that non-planned grant ends this year. The GTA is not demanding an annual grant of Rs 1000 crore from the Central government. The Central Government on its part will not sanction money unless GTA can show utilization, and hence these announced projects.

Even though I do not personally mind GTA requesting for more money, it is the complete lack of transparency on how these funds are used, is what I am against. Rs 600 crores is not a small amount, had it been properly utilized we could have built very many lasting infrastructural amenities and facilities for Darjeeling denizens, but sadly that has not been the case so far.

SMP, SMC ELECTIONS and BJP

The upcoming Siliguri Municipality Corporation and Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad elections are critically important from the Gorkhaland point of view. So far the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha which is the foremost political party in the region has remained away from these elections, however this year it should not.

Yes! BJP is an alliance partner which is gradually spreading its base in the plains, and Yes! They will want to fill all their candidates in the elections, but GJM will do well to resist the same.

Friendship much like everything else should emanate from a position of strength, than of weakness. When you are as independently powerful as your friend, there is respect. Currently in Darjeeling context BJP is the junior partner, but if the MP election figures are anything to go by, they may not remain so after the upcoming SMP and SMC elections. The GJM by aligning with JMM (Dooars) John Barla Group and KPP Atul Roy faction should insist on filing equal number of candidates in the upcoming elections in collaboration with BJP. In doing so, the GJM-BJP friendship will strengthen further, and it will give GJM and local political parties more bargaining power with the BJP.

If GJM+KPP+JMM can form one group and collaborate with BJP then this alliance has a very good chance of forming the next SMP and SMC boards. If you let BJP contest in all the seats, then BJP will definitely win, but we won’t gain anything.

For the sake of Gorkhaland issue, GJM+KPP+JMM as a block will have to convince BJP to allow them to contest at least half the seats, more if possible.

Controlling SMP and SMC will not only ensure that Siliguri remains an integral part of Darjeeling, but it will also allow us better footing to bargain with BJP. This same formula can be used while contesting the 2016 MLA elections. The more MLAs, Panchayats, Corporators, Sabhasads are from amongst us, the better it will be for us – be it in terms of asking for more funds or demanding Gorkhaland statehood.

FINAL WORDS

A friend of mine from Manipur recently told me, “GJM leaders used to visit north east a lot during the Gorkhaland andolan days… after accepting GTA, tini harule mukh panee dekhako chaina… next time andolan garnu parye, kun much liyera auncha hola tiniharu?”

That statement of his, in short, tells you how much GJM has failed the Gorkhalis, not only in Darjeeling, but also the rest of India.

Elie Wiesel once wrote that, “The opposite of love is not hate, its indifference” all of us who criticize, comment, write against the current GJM and/or GTA policies do so out of our deep love for Darjeeling and Gorkhali people across India. GJM being the party in power which is currently representing the aspirations of Million+ Gorkhalis from the Darjeeling region and also rest of India – after all Gorkhaland is a dream of every Gorkhali in India – thus has our de-facto support.

When we criticize you, we are not doing so out of hate for you, rather it is out of love for our beloved Darjeeling, we share our care and concern through various means.

You should ensure that we continue to do so; else people could turn indifferent and stop caring what you do or don’t do… because that is when people decide to take things in their own hands instead of relying on you folks.

Following the Sikkim footstep, Darjeeling transporters’ association has decided to bar all outside vehicles for sight-seeing trips in Darjeeling from April 1. Mostly, taxis from Sikkim and even taxis from Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal are being seen providing services to tourists at sight-seeing points in Darjeeling. The association has decided […]

State government is considering to recruit GLP (Gorkhaland Personnel) as Civic Police, who do not have any criminal cases against them. This was stated by Chief Minister during her visit to Darjeeling on Thursday. There were about 5000 GLP under Bimal Gurung for Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 every month, […]

THE NEXT HEARING OF ALL THE CASES AGAINST BIMAL GURUNG WILL BE ON FEBRUARY 19, AS DECIDED ON FRIDAY BY THE BENCH OF JUSTICE A.K. BHUSHAN AND JUSTICE ASHOK SIKRI OF THE SUPREME COURT. 36,519 total views, 839 views today Comments comments

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